A U.S. SUPREME Court ruling mandating that any fact increasing a sentence beyond the statutory maximum must be alleged in the indictment and proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury has been applied in another context by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In the latest Second Circuit decision to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling in the so-called Apprendi case, the appeals court found that a failure to prove drug quantity beyond a reasonable doubt prejudiced a drug dealer who was sentenced to 22 months beyond the maximum penalty.
